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Saturday, February 18, 2012

A Postcard

I like sending postcards. Not just because they're cheaper, but when you just want a quick hello to a friend, you can't beat it. It's hard to layer on a postcard because the layers can catch when going through the Post Office automated equipment so I always do mine clean and simple. And, as I've read on lots of blogs, that's the challenge. We can all add lots of stuff to a card to make it sizzle, but I have always had trouble making a card sizzle with just stamps and coloring - no layers, no embellishments, no sparkle. EEEEEK! I recently stumbled upon this GinaK's Stately Flowers set (she's up to three now) and I love these images and the way they stamp. I hope to collect them all if my allowance holds out.

This is just a 4" x 6" piece of Beckett Radiance card stock stamped with the Stately Flowers 3 bitterroot stamps. I used the large stamp for the center stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and the small one in London Fog for the background. With the small stamp, I stamped it off once before actually stamping on my card stock.﻿

I have never seen a bitterroot flower in person so I had to look the color up on the internet. I found a great example and used my F.C. Polychromos to color this one using Cream, Middle Purple Pink, Fuchsia, and Light Magenta﻿. I think for a first time, I did a credible job of coloring. I'd like to try this flower at a different time using my Copics but with a postcard, you can't use Copics because of the bleed-through unless you adhere a separate front and back together. I also want to work on my depth, but that's for next time.

The back of the postcard was stamped with Penny Black's postcard stamp. After stamping this image, I cut off the "This card hand stamped by" and the line under it. After peeling the sponge layer off, I put it in my Penny Black box to use if I needed it. This gave me more room for a message and I can position it lower on my card if I want to use it. I believe that a postcard only costs 32 cents to mail these days but I'll check that before I mail it to my friends in Montana.﻿

I could actually create a postcard of this size in PowerPoint or another piece of software and add words or digital images to it, print it out, cut it to size and then color it. Lots of ways to go when you have a blank slate. You could even use Copics if you run the front of the postcard through a Zyron and adhere it to the back, although you'd want to make sure it was stuck really well all the way around.

This is the flower I found on the internet and used as an example to color my bitterroot.﻿